Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday tried to strike a chord with the people of Odisha by raking up the issue of the missing keys of the treasury trove (ratna bhandar) of the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple.
At the election campaign in Kandhamal, the Prime Minister said that 70 years ago, rules were laid to oversee the management of the Shree Jagannath temple, including the maintenance of records for gold, silver and jewellery.
“But, the keys of ratna bhandar have been missing for the past six years. Don’t you have a right to know where these keys went? The state government says the duplicate keys of the ratna bhandar have been found. How were these made? Who got them made? Are we sure if they were not used for stealing the jewellery from ratna bhandar? Nobody knows.”
Modi said: “Missing the keys is a concern. But making a duplicate is a matter of grave concern.”
Modi also challenged Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik to tell the names of all the districts of the state and its capital from memory. “You have been the state's chief minister for so many years. Why are the people of Odisha unhappy with you? Can Naveenbabu tell the names of all the districts and its capitals, without the aid of a written piece of paper? When your chief minister does not have this information, how can he understand your problems?"
He said only a person who is the son or daughter of the soil and understands Odisha's culture and tradition would become the chief minister of BJP in the state. “I have come here to invite you to the swearing-in ceremony of the chief minister of the BJP,” said Modi, adding that a BJP chief minister would take oath on June 10. He said the Naveen government had not implemented the Ayushman Bharat Yojana despite being repeatedly urged to do so.
In Bargarh, Modi asked people that since the Odisha chief minister was also contesting from Kantabanji when he came to the area they should ask him to name 10 villages under the Kantabanji constituency from memory. “I bet he can not utter 10 names,” Modi said.
